The Real Cost of Prisons Project

by: January 8, 2007Northampton, MA

Lois Ahrens of Northampton, Massachusetts runs what’s called “The Real Cost of Prisons Project,” which distributes information on the social and economic costs of mass incarceration. In the last two years, the project has used comic books to get its message out. Ahrens told WFCR’s Karen Brown that the prison population has swelled dramatically since the so-called war on drugs began. At last count, Ahrens says, 2.2 million people were incarcerated in the United States. To see the comic books, go online to www.realcostofprisons.org.